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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Exile Bytes - Excerpt

It's been 7 months since I've worked on "Exile Bytes" the follow up book to "Spell Checked". Now that "Immortal Voyage" is done and ready for it's release June 15th, I'm reading over the chapter of Exile Bytes that I wrote before I abondon it to write Immortal Voyage. I'm so excited to start writing again, so I thought I would share an excerpt....

I haven't shared any of this with anyone yet, so I'm a bit nervous.

Exile Bytes

Aidan stood at the door and cocked his head at Beck’s disheveled appearance then snorted, “Are we interrupting?”

Beck pulled the towel tighter then tucked in the corner.“Aidan, I’m so glad to see you.” Beck smiled and embraced Aidan then craned his neck out the door and looked side to side.“Where is Meredith?” he asked before shutting the door.

Aidan followed Beck into the room and sat on the couch while Beck continued to stand.“She is in our room getting settled, something about the long plane ride and looking like a mess.A hot mess if you ask me.How are you and the wife doing?”

“As well as can be expected under the circumstances,” Beck sighed before Mae stepped out of the bedroom dressed in a white halter dress.

“Aidan!You’re here,” she beamed and threw her arms around his neck as soon as he stood up.

Aidan hugged her and kissed her cheek before pulling back to take a look at her.“Wow Mae, you have grown since I last saw you.Are you sure there aren’t three of them in there,” he teased.

“Bite your tongue Aidan.” Mae scowled.

“Well, if you two do not mind, I would like to get dressed, so we can go to breakfast,” Beck interrupted, leaving Aidan and Mae in the living room.

A few minutes into Aidan and Mae’s conversation there was a knock on the door.Mae opened the door to find Meredith, Alexis, and Charles.“Where is Aaron?” she questioned.

“Dr. Fancy Pants is still getting dressed.He will meet us downstairs for breakfast,” Alexis jeered.

Meredith hugged Mae.“I can’t wait for Council season to be over with so we can spend more time together.Aidan does nothing but sulk without Beck around to keep him occupied,” Meredith confessed.

“Well you are not missing much,” Mae said.“This is the first time the warden has allowed me to leave the facility since my incarceration,” Mae grumbled as she frowned.

Meredith laughed. “Oh my...You poor girl!However have you survived?”

“Chocolate!Lots of chocolate,” Mae mused, sitting down on one of the chairs in the living room then rested her hands on her growing belly.

“Well, I have something that will change that.” Meredith pulled what appeared to be a cigar box from her purse and opened it.Inside sat a metallic disk a little smaller than her hand with unusual etchings around the edge and a large blue, dome shaped stone in the middle.

Mae eyed the artifact. “What is it?”

“It’s called Anu’s shield but we refer to it as a speed trap,” Meredith replied, taking the device out of the box and handing it to Mae.“It’s one of the devices left by our ancestors.Acting like a force field, it has the ability to stop anything that comes within the shield area above a certain velocity.Objects such as this are sacred among us, but Calcifer felt your protection was worth more than whatever flack he might catch from the Council for letting you borrow it.”

“How does it work?” Mae handed the device back to Meredith.

“Calcifer showed me before he gave it to me.You just turn the stone in the center like so,” Meredith turned the center stone until the stone lit up from within. “It glows when it is on.It was made to go on a belt of some sort, but Calcifer and I came up with a way to hang it from a chain.”

“Even on a chain, it will be hard to hide.Then again, if my boobs get any bigger, I will be able to conceal an entire village.” Mae chuckled as Meredith placed the device around her neck.

“And I like them that way,” Beck yelled from the bedroom doorway.

“Who asked you?” Mae retorted as everyone laughed.

Beck joined them in the living room.“I have not seen one of these since the Romans attacked the Celts in Brittan.”He carefully inspected the device in his hand.“It gave the Celtic leaders the upper hand against our crossbows.” Beck passed his fingers one last time over the smooth surface of the stone then let it hang back around Mae’s neck.“I thought the Nauss took all of their toys with them, when they left.”

“For the most part they did.What few artifacts we have left from them, we keep well-guarded,” stated Meredith.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I need to eat...Now!” Mae interrupted.

I feel bad that it is taking me so long to get Exile Bytes written. I promised myself not to rush to finish it, because I want it to be well written and well thought out...Thank you for being patient, I promise it will be worth the wait :-)

About Me

As a teen C.G. Powell was selected as a member of her school's newspaper staff. After her first article the editor decided the darkroom was a more suitable place for her skills…or lack of. Since then, she has traveled everywhere—thanks to her innate curiosity about the world and the Navy. In her life time, she has learned: aviation electronics, CCNA networking, Gemology and how to get bloodstains out of the carpet (you never know when you might need that). But her latest, all-consuming, endeavor is storytelling. When asked why, her response was "I live to challenge myself; I like to be pushed outside of my comfort zone and writing is one of those things that pushes my boundaries. Besides it was the only way to share all of the crap bouncing around in my head!"
C.G. Powell lives in Virginia with her husband and children. When she is not writing, you might find her watching hot guys jog past her front window, ordering the cabana boy to fix her another drink or abusing the local authorities…but that’s just hearsay.